Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder called attention yesterday to the nationwide
surge in heroin abuse, saying a spike in overdoses of the deadly drug constitutes “an urgent and
growing public health crisis.”

Holder said the government is seeking violent traffickers who bring heroin into the United
States while urging emergency personnel to carry an anti-overdose drug.

“Confronting this crisis will require a combination of enforcement and treatment. The Justice
Department is committed to both,” said Holder, who added that the Drug Enforcement Administration
has opened more than 4,500 heroin-related probes since 2011.

Heroin use rose 79 percent nationwide between 2007 and 2012, federal data show, and Holder said
heroin-related deaths are up 400 percent in areas such as Cleveland.

In response, he said, a DEA strategy is aimed at reducing the supply of heroin.

Officials also are partnering with police, doctors and others to increase prevention and
treatment programs for heroin and prescription opioids. Prescription drug abuse kills far more
people each year than heroin, federal data show.